The Second Sunrise
by Midnight-Armonia
Summary: A werewolf pack in South Dakota has only ever heard of vampires, until a vegetarian coven moves uncomfortably close to their territory and an imprint takes place that changes everything. But will the two groups' shaky alliance survive a new, worse danger?


I lean against the porch railing as I wait for the rest of the pack to arrive. My brother, Cody, is sitting in a chair next to me, with his head in his hands. Poor kid. Every time our Alpha, Bryan Lewis, calls a meeting, Cody's sure it's so Bryan can whip Cody's butt about some random screwup he had on a patrol or something. That was only once, though. And it was the kid's first patrol.

Cody looks at me, his hazel eyes terrified. "Honestly, Mira, I think this is it. I've done it this time. You know Bryan's gonna -"

"Kick you out of the pack, right? Don't look at me like that. It's not gonna happen. Hell, I don't even know if it _can_ happen. You haven't screwed up - at least, not bad or anything - since your first patrol. And that doesn't count. Everybody messes up on their first patrol." _Way to go, Mira,_ I tell myself sarcastically. Now I'm babbling, too, and Cody can tell I'm scared as bad as he is. Just because of one little word in Bryan's message to meet here, a word he's never used before when calling us to a meeting.

Emergency.

Apparently, this is an emergency meeting. That's what he said. And he's never, ever, ever said that before. Bryan's the calm and cool type; he's not one to go calling random emergency meetings. But he said emergency meeting, immediately, meet him at the back porch of Cody and Mira's house.

Here are me and Cody. Where the hell is everybody else? This is an _emergency meeting._ I try to keep the sarcasm out of my mind-voice when I think that, but it really doesn't work.

As if on cue, Greg Slate, our Beta, comes pelting out of the woods and scaring the heck out of me. He's still in his brown-flecked, muscular wolf form, and he phases as he leaps for our porch. I jump backwards towards the brick wall of the house, and Greg's derisive snort of wolfish amusement morphs into a booming, human laugh as he phases.

"Dammit, Greg," I grumble, peeling myself from off the wall I've plastered myself to. "What's with you and dramatic entrances?"

He makes himself at home by reaching out and tousling my wavy brown hair, ignoring my question. He's so tall, it scares me. He scares me, big goof that he actually is. I'm always terrified, though, that he'll get mad at me for whatever reason and break my face or something. He could probably rip my feet off with his pinkie fingers.

Suddenly, a loud snore sounds from the rocking chair. I jab my elbow in Cody's shoulder blades. "Wake up. We've got an emergency meeting to attend."

I can hear the pawsteps of our three missing pack mates through the woods, and I hear them phasing quickly. All three of them run out while pulling on various articles of clothing. In summertime, they would all go shirtless, but it's way too conspicuous for them to do that in winter. Me? I generally wear Cody's shirts and tank tops. I'm not exactly what you'd call a fashion maestro, unless ratty boys' tanks and cutoffs are considered fashionable.

Bryan quickly clambers up on to the porch, followed by Gabe and Shane (aka Spider or Spider Monkey - I'll explain later). Gabe and Shane come around and stand with the rest of us, while Bryan gestures for Greg to join him at the top of the porch steps. For a second they just stand there, looking at us. I sigh and toss a pebble at them. "Spit it out. Jeez. I don't have all day."

Bryan rolls his eyes. Ah, our beloved Alpha. "Fine. I really didn't want it to come to this, but... I guess I really need to tell you. It was either that or accidentally think it while we're all wolves, but I figured that wouldn't get the best reactions..."

"And this won't either, maybe unless you _just get to the freakin' point,_" I muttered. Bryan threw me an acid glare, but he took a deep breath and really began this time.

"I was patrolling the south borders the other day when a strange scent hit my nose. Something I've only smelled once, something my dad and grandfather have...warned me about. It was the scent of...vampires."

A shocked, heavy sort of silence is draped in the air. I decide to break it, and the tension, too. I elbow Cody. "See, I told you he wasn't coming to grill you about something."

And then everything explodes, and everyone, including the infamously quiet Shane/Spider Monkey, is up on their feet and yelling at the top of their lungs. Then Greg's booming voice explodes all around us. "SHUT UP!"

We shut up.

Gabe looked at Bryan. "What does this mean, anyways?"

Bryan half-smiled, but it was more along the lines of a grimace. "Ah...I'm not even sure. I was thinking, we could start by finding out if they're...you know...if they suck the blood of humans, or animals."

"I can't see that it makes much of a difference," Shane pipes up. "I mean, we're werewolf shape-shifters, right? So technically we're animals _and_ humans."

I have to admit, Spider Monkey's got a point there.

"Yeah," Bryan interjects, "but I'd say it'll make a _huge_ difference to the citizens of this town."

Okay, our almighty Alpha's got a point, too. Cody asks, "So what're we going to do first?"

Bryan contemplates. "I had an idea. We could be friendly - "

I can't help myself. I really can't. I jump away from the wall I've been leaning on and snarl, "Oh _hell_ no!" (It's instinctive, okay?)

No one else says anything, but I can see it on their faces that they all pretty much agree with me.

Bryan holds up his hand to get their attention. "I was saying - we could be friendly _at first_, thank you Mira for interrupting me so rudely, and then stage an attack later if they're hostile. If they're not, we just leave them be, but you do whatever you want to them if they close to being on our territory."

Haha, take that, leeches. We get to totally kick your worthless butts if you come near us.

Bryan cracks his knuckles, and I cringe. Everyone thinks I'm squeamish just because I'm a vegetarian, but trust me, I'm not. Three things make me want to puke: one, animal meat; two, people cracking their knuckles; and three, if Cody's bleeding. Of course, the latter isn't so bad now, since werewolves heal so quickly and whatnot, but it's so gross when people crack their knuckles.

ADHD, much? I shake my head at the length of my attention span (which, interestingly enough, seems to actually deteriorate as I go on in life) and try to focus on the conversation again.

Bryan is informing us about another Super Genius Plan of his. "We introduce ourselves to the leeches," he says. "We go in groups of two, so they aren't, you know, intimidated or something."

Intimidated? Intimidated? I want them to be more than intimidated, yet here Bryan is saying that we can't even amuse ourselves with that.

"I know this is something only I've dealt with before," he says, "but I know you guys can handle it."

Okay, I'm going to pause in what I'm sure is a fascinating story to complain about the couple of reasons why Bryan can be such a freakin' annoying Alpha. He acts like he's our kindergarten teacher, for crying out loud. I mean, 'I know you guys can handle it'? Come on.

So in response to his U-5 soccer coach-like comment, I mutter, "Or we might just walk out on you right now, O Mighty Alpha."

He glares at me. Greg stifles a snort, and I flash him a deliberately cocky smile.

"Seriously, though," Bryan says, "for now, we're just going to be nice and polite and do patrols a lot more than we normally would. You know. There's no reason to freak out."

I look around at everyone. Any calmer and we'll be asleep. "Yeah, Bryan, we're really over here having panic attacks."

He slams his fist onto the porch railing and practically growls. "You know what, Mira? You can just - "

But fortunately, he can't get any further in what I'm sure was going to be a string of profanities, because someone is running across the backyard, and I mean, they're going at a blur. Their cloud of golden hair flies out behind them, and I watch in confusion as someone else with pitch-black hair chases after the first figure and the two of them go streaking off into the woods, our territory. All of us rise to go tell them off, because the story here in town is that our woods are private property. But then I catch a whiff of something, something that absolutely reeks; it's a scent Bryan's told us about before but none of us have smelled...until now.

Holy. Freaking. Crap.

Vampire.


End file.
